Katherine's Wedding

We headed to Utah right after New Years for Katherine Hough's wedding. During our (really) short visit we did our best to fit in visits with as many people as possible.

We stayed with the Foote family and exposed them to one of Peter's Christmas presents. "Just Dance" is a Wii game that is fun for the whole family. Here's the evidence of that. :)

Tammy, Kimberly and Peter

Nathan, Ethan, and Taylor
We also went to brunch with Peter's brother Alex and his family at the Grand America Hotel. It sure was the fanciest brunch I've ever been to, that's for sure!

Jaxton and Payton

Payton, Tawny, Alex, Jaxton, and Lola

I was really glad that we came out for Katherine's wedding to Tony Phillips. It was held up at Log Haven up Mill Creek Canyon. The beautiful snow covered mountains were the perfect backdrop for a winter wedding. I love weddings!

Here's Kimberly, Tyler, and Kaitlyn

Tyler and the flower girls - Star and Skye Peter and I all dressed up for the special day
Dad and Marriann were in the wedding party (naturally). I loved watching them walk down the aisle together.
BEST MAN - Logan (Tony's son) and MATRON OF HONOR - Marabeth
The Ceremony
Katherine and Tony enjoying all the touching speeches
Let's party! We danced the night away.
The Bride "workin' it"Sisters - Kimberly, Kat, and KallieWhew! I'm exhausted.

After the wedding (we left at 11:30 PM!), even though we were wiped out from a long day we made the trek 1 hour out of our way to hit the new In-N-Out in Draper. In Dallas we are more than 13 hours from the closest In-N-Out so this was nothing compared to that! This was our first chance to have In-N-Out since we moved to Texas. It was sooooo yummy. I had mine with the chopped chilis even though it was past midnight. :) I MISS IN-N-OUT!

No longer Californians

Well, it's official. We signed the paperwork this week and have sold our condo in California. I teared up when we were at UPS shipping off the paperwork and then lost it in the car. I sure loved our first home. We bought the black Kenmore appliances we wanted, we picked out the Corian countertops, we painted the walls, and we changed the stainless steel sink to the BEST (Black Siligranite) SINK EVER!

So I can remember later on, here are some of the things I loved about living at 1501 Secret Ravine Parkway #320 Roseville, CA 95661...

- I loved the modern firehouse at the corner of Secret Ravine and East Roseville Parkway

- I loved the trees that lined our street and that they would blossom first at the beginning of spring

- I loved the way each of the buildings in the complex looked different from each other

- I loved our close location to the clubhouse

- I loved how nice the whole complex was, how clean it was kept, and the landscaping

- I loved how on a really clear day you could see downtown Sac from our porch

- I loved the way the afternoon sun shone in through the front room window on the couch

- I loved seeing our guests' reactions when I showed them the grounds - i.e. the life-sized chess board, the game room, the pool, etc. It made me really proud to live there.

- I loved leaving our windows open especially at night to enjoy the breeze that would cool off the house

- I loved how clean our dishwasher got EVERYTHING and how we never had to rinse the dishes

- I loved our fridge especially the in-door filtered water and ice!

- I loved the view over the valley (especially in the spring) I got to enjoy when I would drive down Sierra College Blvd to go to Safeway

I know that there were things I didn't like about the place as well but I want to make sure that I remember some of these little things that are tender to me right now. It was a great first home for us and met our needs really well. When we first started thinking about purchasing a condo, I had driven to another complex that was just being built and while I was in the sales office someone mentioned to me about a complex call "The Phoenician" in Roseville that was also under construction. I checked it out later and from the first moment I saw it, I KNEW that it would be where we lived. It just felt right. So we waited and participated in the crazy silent bidding process once they started selling the units. We didn't win the first unit we bid on but won when we bid on a unit in the second group released. We finally moved in on New Years Eve 2004. It was a great nearly 5 years and I will always feel blessed that we were able to live there.

New Years

Kimberly came to town a couple days after Christmas to hang out with us. It was a lot of fun to have her in town. We spent time shopping, watching movies, playing addictive Facebook games (Treasure Madness and Bejeweled), and enjoying being around family.

For New Years Eve we went to Medieval Times. They had a special late show which included their regular dinner/show and then they'd have a party afterward so it sounded like a lot of fun. Plus I figured if the show was going to go up until 11:45 pm then at least I'd have something to keep me entertained and enable me to stay up until midnight. :)

I thought that it would end up being cheesy and no one would be there but I was wrong. There was a TON of people there and they put on a great event.

Dinner, in true Medieval fashion, didn't include silverware so that was fun. And then during the show we were in the Blue Knight's section so we cheered heartily for him as he competed in various events. It was fun and engaging plus he was the cutest knight so it wasn't hard to root for him. Poor Kimberly was struggling to breath due to the horses so I felt bad.

Once we left the arena when the show was over and went where they had a dance floor set up Kimberly was able to breath again and didn't look like she was going to die on us. :) After that we huge out and dance until it was time for the countdown. It was a true New Years Eve celebration complete with noise makers, hats, beads, a balloon drop at midnight, confetti canons, and a DJ. We danced and showed the masses the great moves we had learned thanks to the Wii game "Just Dance". It was certainly the funnest New Years Eve I can remember in a long time.

(Please ignore my orange Oompa Loompa face. I had tried some self-tanner so that I would be scary white in my sleeveless dress for Katherine's wedding. Clearly it wasn't the naturally sun-kissed look I was going for. Did you know that Oompa Loompa was a nickname I had in high school? True story. Too bad I didn't have the self tanner back then, I could have made a great halloween costume out of it.)

This is the first post where 100% of the pictures were taken with my new camera. Aren't they so nice, clear, and colorful???

Christmas

I kept waiting to post about Christmas because I wanted to include all the videos I had of lights but I've decided to abandon the videos in favor of getting 2009 posts finished out before Valentines Day comes. :) Guess I better hurry!

Christmas Day was nice and quiet. It's the first time since in a few years where we didn't go to visit family or have family in town visiting us.

Before:

After:

Here are our Christmas traditions (at least the ones I can think of right now):

-Each year we buy an ornament for our Christmas tree that represents something that we did or happened that year.
-On Christmas Eve we prepare Monkey bread (aka cinnamon pullaparts) so that in the morning as soon as we get up we can pop it in the oven and then enjoy it while we are opening presents and lounging around the rest of the day.
-Christmas dinner at our house includes the Honey Baked Ham and Turkey, Michal Thomas’s recipe for Potato soup, and homemade rolls.

Last year we really cut back on Christmas due to Peter losing his job that year. This year, we didn't have the same self control and enjoyed spoiling each other. :)

Peter got me a Sirius satellite radio so I can listen to Howard Stern wherever I go. WAHOO. He also got me a brand new digital camera. I had been using an old digital camera from work that took as many bad pictures as it did good so I couldn't wait to use the new one.

I have always teased Peter about how much I would like him to learn to play the guitar. When we were getting married I teased him and said that the best wedding present he could give me would be to learn how to play the guitar. :) Well recently he has talked about having an interest in learning so I jumped on this and bought him a guitar. (I think playing the guitar is a sexy talent!) It was great because he had no idea and it was a complete surprise. He really liked the present and spent the rest of the day learning how to play a couple chords. Here's a video of his first song:

That night we went back to look at the lights in that great neighborhood and when we were leaving we exited the neighborhood a different way and found an AMAZING house. They had a crazy display synchronized to a large variety of music. We stayed for a long time just watching. My favorite things was these lights twinkled down kinda of like a shooting star or a falling firework. I really wish I could upload the video so you could see it but you'll have to look at the video online.

This isn't that house but it IS the house that won first place in the neighborhood contest. Can you imagine their electric bill?

It was a great, simple Christmas this year with just the two of us.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started with us fulfilling a few of our traditions. Each year, either 1 or 2 days before Christmas Peter and I make a trip to Wal-Mart to shop for stuff to fill each other’s stockings. Part of the fun is dodging around the store trying to avoid each other and certainly not letting them see what we have in our carts. When we went into Wal-Mart there were even a few snowflakes falling (I thought they don’t get snow in Dallas!?!?!). Well, when we exited the store an hour later, here is what we found…

Crazy right?! We still hadn’t picked our Honey Baked Ham and Turkey Breast (which is another tradition we have on Christmas) so that was our next stop. Of course, the line was way out into the parking lot. Peter was game to just forget it but I didn’t want to miss this tradition. Since I was the one that fought for it, I was the one that got to make it happen. So I stood there for OVER an hour in the snow, wind, and freezing cold waiting to get the meat. Since I didn’t have an umbrella I utilized a big plastic bag. I got some funny looks but hey, I was dry!

We went home and hung out the rest of the day since everything was shutting down anyway. That night I wanted to go look at more Christmas lights. My appetite for lights had been whetted the night before at Frisco Square and I needed MORE.

So we get outside and we are seriously driving in a SNOWSTORM! The roads were covered and slippery and in need of a plow. Everyone was driving 10 MPH. It was crazy (but beautiful). Again, thanks to my co-workers I had an idea of where to go. There is a neighborhood in Plano that is known for their lights and even gives out awards each year to the best houses. It was the perfect night to go. Thanks to the snow and the fact that it was Christmas Eve, the streets were relatively uncrowded and we didn't have to wait in crazy long lines of cars at every turn. There were quite a few houses that had their own radio stations pumping out music. It was awesome to see how many people participated and had gone all out. We spent about 2 hours just driving and looking at the lights. It was FANTASTIC - I tell you, people in Frisco/Plano take their lights seriously!!! Plus, it was snowing while we were out so it really felt like Christmas. I never really missed having a "White Christmas" in California but I won't complain about the beauty and peaceful feeling that comes from one.

(Side moment of real and frank honesty - While the white Christmas was fun, I still am not sold on living in Texas. I am trying here people but I really do miss living in California. It has been really cold in Dallas this winter and I just keep looking at the great weather in Sacramento....ugh! Plus, other than my job I still don't feel like we've put down any roots or made any progress on this feeling like "home". Oh well, I keep reminding myself that it took awhile for California to feel like home, too.)

I was going to post a video of the house that took First Place. The house had the music synchronized to lights theme... The song was by Transiberian Orchestra - "Wizards in Winter". It's obviously my favorite song to see synchronized with lights since I recorded the same song at Frisco Square. I was also going to post a different house with their version of it on my Christmas day post but since I recorded the whole song the files are too large to upload. I guess if I want to post videos in the future, I'll need to learn how to edit them or just take shorter videos. :)

Here's what our balcony looked like thanks to the snow. Peter and I were able to play a little in the snow and threw a couple snowballs at each other.

Christmas Lights

So with all my work travel plus our vacation to Mexico, Christmas kinda snuck up on me and I didn't get to really relish and enjoy the whole Holiday Season like I planned to.

I decided on Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd), it was finally time to experience some Holiday fun. I had heard from some co-workers that Frisco Square had a pretty good set up with lights and was worth a trip. So me and Scrooge aka Peter ventured down there. It was far better than I even imagined!!!

They had put lights on all the surrounding stores and buildings and then synchronized the lights to music. You could either get out and walk around and hear the music through speakers or tune your car radio to a certain frequency and hear the music that way. The weather was so nice that we only needed a light jacket and decided to get out and walk around.

I have decided that this will be part of our Christmas traditions for as long as we live here. But next year I'm going to go earlier in December and not wait so long. I had a cool video we took but apparently it's too big in size for this site... so, oh well!

Format Frustrations

Okay, this is driving me nuts. I CAN NOT decide whether to put the captions for each picture above it or below it. Each time I write a new post I have to look back at what I've written so I can do it the same way because uniformity and consistency are nice, right? So...I've decided to stop stressing about it. And let me just say "I'm Sorry" in advance for any moments of irritation, however brief they be, that this causes you. For now, since I haven't told anyone about this blog and am still just writing it for myself, it's not a big deal. But, just in case I ever go public with my thoughts and our adventures my apology is now written.